Fall Leaf Relief Painting

 One of my absolute favorite fall activities is driving up to the mountains and collecting beautiful leaves with my family.

This year we were lucky and found a few beautiful spots with loads of leaves!  We brought them home and decided to do this really simple craft, Fall Leaf Relief Painting!

Relief art projects are so great for little kids because they don't have to be exact or complicated.  All I did was stick a piece of tape on the back of the leaves and then let my kids mix red, yellow and orange paint to use all around the leaf.  

Of course, my 2-year old turned it into a finger (or whole hand;) painting project ;)

Once your paint is dry you just pull off the leaf and you are left with this beautiful outline in perfect fall colors!

I don't even know if anyone looks at this little blog anymore, but if you do thanks so much for stopping  by and have a fantastic fall day! :)

Flower Science Experiment for Kids

 Happy Friday my friends!  We are SO ready for this long weekend...and then only one more week of school!  We are wrapping up our week on Flowers by sharing a really fun and simple experiment we do every few years that my kids completely love.  

This is so simple and easy to put together, but the kids get a kick out of it and learn alot too!  All you need for your own Flower Experiment are some white flowers, plastic cups filled with water and food coloring.

Now our flowers have only been in the water for a little over a day, and already you can see the major changes taking place!  This is such a fun way to show your kids how plants absorb water, and also a great way to learn about predictions and graphs as well.  Check out how our flowers are doing so far:

Orange

Red

Green

Yellow

Blue

I plan on keeping our roses as long as we can to see how dark they will get and to see if our predictions came true!  Most of us thought the blue and red would show the soonest and be the darkest, but the green and orange aren't throwing in the towel yet! ;)

Thank you so much for visiting Blue Skies Ahead today!  I hope you found something you liked and that you have a wonderful weekend!

Resist Watercolor Flower Paintings!

 This week we are studying and learning all about plants and flowers. We have a few science experiments cooking as we speak, so today we did a really fun and simple art project that my kids (and myself!) completely loved!

For this fun Resist Watercolor Painting all you need are a few pieces of cardstock, watercolors, and a white crayon.

If you are like me and have VERY suspect artistic skills you can search on Pinterest for how-to's on drawing flowers.  Or you can just draw the same simple flowers you have been drawing since grade school ;)  Either way, just take a white crayon and draw flowers on white cardstock.  Once you have done that give your kids some watercolor paints and let them have at it!

My kids absolutely loved watching the flowers appear on their papers right before their eyes as  they painted away.  

These abstract works of art turned out beautiful, and I love hanging them in our family study.  The kids were having so much fun I had to join in with them ;) 

Have you tried any resist artwork at your place?  The possibilities really are endless from tape, to crayons, glue and even stickers!  Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Bird Feed Snacks and Feather Fruit Cups {Bird Week}

 Happy Friday everyone!  I don't know about where you are, but here it is RAINY!  Since my kids all have major spring fever and its too wet to play outside, I figured a fun, bright movie would be the perfect way to end our week all about birds.  Of course, that meant we are watching Rio, and I took a few minutes to throw together a fun snack they can munch on while we all snuggle up on the couch and watch the movie together.

First up we used our leftover feathers and googly eyes from our Paper Bag Bird Craft to make these Feather Fruit Cups!

We just glued feathers, googly eyes, and paper beaks to these plastic cups and filled them with mandarin oranges.  You really could use any kind of fruit you want, for lots of different, fun-colored birds!

We also threw together these fun Bird Feed Snacks...simply put popcorn, almonds, M&M's, and of course gummy worms in some cute snack bags and you are good to go!

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!!

Paper Bag Bird Craft {Bird Week}

 
I am totally in love with this fun craft we whipped up today, hopefully you and your kids will enjoy it too!  I completely spaced going to the store this morning so we had to improvise, but I love what we came up with.  Here are our simple and silly Paper Bag Bird Crafts!

All you need for this fun craft are paper bags, paint (I found some great paint brushes with the paint inside at WalMart the other day that we used), feathers, googly eyes, and orange paper cut into triangles.

Once you have your paper bags ready let the kids go crazy painting them any colors they want.  One tip-try and make sure your kids don't use TOO much paint, otherwise it will take hours to dry ;)  I had to get a paper towel and wipe off excess paint on most of ours after we were done...the other one I didn't wipe is still drying ;)

Once your bags are dry, just glue on googly eyes, an orange triangle for the beak, and feathers on the back for wings!  Your kids will LOVE their new Paper Bag Bird Puppets...mine sure did!

Thanks so much for checking out Blue Skies Ahead today, hope you have a great day!

Homemade Bird Feeders {Bird Week}

 This week we are learning all about birds at our house, and I found a fantastic idea from the gals at Eighteen25 that I knew would be the perfect activity for my kids...

Homemade Bird Feeders!

These were the perfect quick and fun activity to fill up our morning before my kids went to kindergarten, preschool and nap time ;)

All you need to make some of your own are bird food ( I got this bag at my local grocery store), gelatin packets, wax paper, twine or string, and cookie cutters.

To start off you simmer 1/4 C water with one packet of gelatin.  Once your gelatin is dissolved you take your pot off the heat and let cool for a minute.  Once its cool add one cup of bird seed and mix well!

Then you just put your cookie cutters on some wax paper and fill them up about halfway.  Cut a piece of twine and push it down in the middle, then fill the rest of your cookie cutter and pat it down hard!

This little cutie loved picking out her cookie cutters and packing in the bird seed...the hard part was waiting for them to harden ;)  The original post said to wait overnight...we were way to impatient so we only waited about 3 hours and then stuck them in the fridge for about 30 just to make sure they would hold together.

Once they were ready we popped them out, and ran outside to hang them up!

Thanks for stopping by and checking out our homemade birdfeeders, hope you are all having a wonderful week where ever you are! :)

Cinco de Mayo crafts {Homemade Maracas and Eye of God Craft}

Happy Cinco de Mayo!  I know its last minute, but thats how we roll around here ;)  Today we are sharing two really fun and simple crafts your kids will love...young and old!

First up are these adorable Pinterest-inspired Homemade Maracas!  I saw a pin HERE and knew these needed to be a part of our celebration.

These maracas are easy, the kids can do them mostly by themselves, and they will love playing with them all day long. To get started you need some plastic spoons, plastic eggs, rice, and washi tape.

All you do is fill up your eggs with rice, and then place two spoons around your egg.

Then use your washi tape to secure your egg and you are ready for the best part...

To SHAKE IT!!

 

(And yes, this is how we roll.  Dirty shirt, no pants and a crumb-covered floor ;) 

The next craft we did was creating Eye of God's.  My older girls really loved these, in fact they spent an hour making them with their friends last night...after they had worked on them for an hour after school :)

All you need for this craft is popsicle sticks, tape or glue and yarn...easy-peasy!  To make them as colorful as possible I used multi-colored yarn and colored popsicle sticks. 

To show my kids how to wrap the yarn around your sticks to make this cool design we watched THIS tutorial, they explained it all beautifully.

I hope these gave you some fun, last-minute ideas and ways to enjoy your little ones today!  Thanks so much for checking out Blue Skies Ahead!

Salty AND Sweet Cinco de Mayo Snacks!

Happy Monday everyone!  We had quite the eventful weekend.  Let me just say it involved a two-year old plugging the tub and leaving it running for HOURS, and a disaster clean up crew ;)  Even though there is lots of damage, I am so incredibly grateful no one was hurt...and that we have homeowners insurance ;)

On a happier note, today we are sharing some tasty Cinco de Mayo snacks you can easily whip up to satisfy your sweet tooth OR you craving for something salty!

First up we have our Salty Cinco de Mayo snack.  All we did for this bad boy was layer salsa, sour cream, and avocado in a clear cup with some tortilla chips on the side.  Its a fun chance to teach your kids about the Mexican flag, and the perfect after school snack.

I would choose a salty snack EVERY single time over sweet...but I can't say the same for my kids ;)  The sweet version of our snack is just sliced strawberries, then a layer of whipped cream, topped off with a layer of halved green grapes.

The kids gobbled this right up along with their breakfast this morning, it would make a great side dish or dessert for your Cinco de Mayo celebrations tomorrow too :)

Does your family celebrate Cinco de Mayo?  If so, I would LOVE to hear your favorite traditions!  Have a great day!

Cinco de Mayo Tissue Paper Craft

So here we are again!  After a 4 month blogging hiatus I really thought we had put this whole blogging thing on the shelf, but then my kiddos changed my mind.  The other night we were looking for a recipe on the blog and we ended up spending over an hour pouring over past posts and remembering SO many fun things we have done together.  I realized what a blessing this blog has been, even if for NO other reason than I have preserved some wonderful memories I have had the chance to share with my kids.  

So there you have it!  I hope to be able to share with you just a tidbit of our lives, things we do that add a little bit of joy or laughter into the sometimes mundane world of a stay-at-home-mom.  There are good days, and there are bad days...but this blog is dedicated to focusing on the good, even with its imperfections and challenges!

Next week we are going to be doing a few simple things to celebrate and learn about Cinco de Mayo, so I thought today would be the perfect opportunity to make a craft we could display while we do all our activities, a Cinco de Mayo Tissue Paper Craft!

This craft was great fun for the kids, and took about 5 minutes of prep from me :)  All you need to make your own are a bunch of different colored tissue paper, some glue, and a 5 template cut out.

I just googled printable 5 template and then printed and cut them out for my kids.   

Once you have your supplies ready to go, let your kids go CRAZY ripping their tissue paper into pieces...my kids enjoyed this part.  Especially my kindergartner...what is it about ripping up papers and 6 year old boys?!  At least this time it wasn't one of my 9 year olds song lyrics or 7 year olds drawings.  Yeah, it happens a lot at this house ;) 

Once you have a good pile of tissue paper, you just spread glue around your 5 and squash those tissue paper slips down until your 5 is FULL of tissue paper. 

Did I mention this was a messy craft?  Well...it is :)  Luckily my kids still think sweeping is a novelty and something quite fun to do.

The kids loved the finished product and said they looked like number pinatas.  I thought after how cute it would be do some in the colors of the Mexican flag, we may have to make a few more later ;)  We hung them up in our family study and can't wait to enjoy them as we continue with Cinco de Mayo fun into next week!

Thank you so much for stopping by.  I have had so many wonderful comments, followers and friends over the years of blogging, it has truly been a wonderful experience for me.  I love sharing and learning from others as we navigate this crazy and wonderful stage of life...have a wonderful weekend friends!